Believe it or not, getting people to your website is the most important aspect of any online venture. Earning is possible only when people, or visitors, visit your site and view the information you are providing,and hopefully take some action. It could be anything; making purchase, submitting name and email address to your newsletter or participating in some poll. The catch is that there are no hard and fast rules for what works and what does not. What turns out to be highly effective in one case may not work at all in some other instance. However, here are some ways on how to attract people to your web site. Just remember that you may need to continuously keep testing and modifying your efforts so that you can discard the ineffective ways and concentrate more on methods that prove effective as the Internet is continuously changing and nothing is constant. The only thing that does not change is change itself.

1. Give people a free subscription to your e-zine. Almost everyone is publishing a e-zine nowadays so it's important to give something extra with the free subscription. You could offer a free gift or advertising when people subscribe.

2. Provide your visitors with free content. Your content will be more attractive to your visitors if it's up-to-date or original. You could also offer people the option to reprint the content in their e-zine or web site.

3. Offer a free online directory. The directory could be full of interesting ebooks, e-zines, web sites etc. If people find your directory to be a valuable resource they will visit it over and over.

4. Give your visitors a free ebook. You could also include your own ad in the ebook and allow other people to give it away. If you don't want to take the time to write one, you could ask other writers permission to use their articles.

5. Hold free online classes or seminars. They could be held in your web site's chat room. The idea of "live" information will definitely entice people to visit your web site. You will become known as an expert on the topic.

6. Give visitors a free entry into your contest or sweepstakes. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your visitors. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results.

7. Let visitors download free software. It could be freeware, shareware, demos etc. You could even turn part of your site into a free software directory. If you created the software, include your ad inside and let other people give it away.

8. Offer free online services or utilities from your web site. They could be search engine submitting, copy writing proofreading etc. The service or utility should be helpful to your target audience.

9. Give free consulting to people who visit your web site. You could offer your knowledge via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

10. Give your visitors a free membership to your online club. People want to belong to something, why not your online club. You could also give away a free e-zine for club members only.

The above-mentioned ways are one of the most commonly used methods and they have been known to work. However,it is better if you can think of something unique, which nobody else is doing. You just have to keep on testing and refining you efforts.